The Light In The Lake

The Survival Retreat   The rain had been coming down off and on for three days now and pretty much everyone was getting on each others nerves from being stuck inside with not much to do. The lake was a nice place to vacation but we were not on vacation, instead we were basically using four small cabins for our survival retreat and going stir crazy. We had been holed up here for a week and the first few days had gone by quickly as we settled in after bugging out to our new home. No power, no phones and no running water. Very little reading material and food needed to be rationed and carefully allocated to insure our survival. Security grows lax in this type of weather because your thinking nobody would be out in this crap. That is bad thinking as the Army found out in the Vietnam War. Soldiers used to call rainy days like these “Charlie’s” weather because the Viet Cong liked to stage their sneak attacks in it. The rain covers noises and reduces visibility as well as causes people to seek shelter and not be so vigilant. We had not had any security issues ourselves yet, but we had heard quite a bit of yelling and occasional gunfire echoing across the lake so I kept reminding everyone to be aware of their surroundings and my constant reminders grated on everyone’s nerves. They were outside their comfort zone and in possible denial and just did not want to hear about it so I lightened up. They don’t really know what to do because they had no law enforcement or military training so they became defensive when they realized they did not know how to protect each other or the supplies. Supplies without security equals failure, simple as that. Threats that could directly affect our security were the same as could occur in any natural or manmade disaster that creates social chaos and the crime that goes along with it. Lawlessness can occur and does occur, just look at the LA riots where the shop keepers who got ready to protect their own fared better than those stores that burned to the ground because the owners lacked a plan to protect what was theirs. Lake porch decks face the scenic lake, the front of the cabins just face a short tree lined gravel road and is pretty boring to just keep looking at nothing when you have other options. But if we were threatened by anything I thought it is coming down that road. A lot of boats still work I imagine after the solar storm EMP only probably fried some batteries, but I hadn’t heard any, of course the lake had sail boats a plenty, we had one, but I couldn’t see anyone playing Lake Pirate yet. I had better rethink that thought; I was organizing everyone in our compound to go scavenging the empty houses around us and try to figure out just how many people were still living around us. Enough time has passed since the EMP event that a lot of people would be desperate for food now and consider any unclaimed resources worthy of fighting over and probably consider us a raiding party. The way these little roads wound about connecting to the small main road and the lakes shoreline going every which way, some one could walk up on you before you even knew it. Following the shore line was pretty much the easiest way to move about too from house to house. We practiced some light discipline but not so much that someone didn’t know this point was occupied. We didn’t want somebody that was scavenging targeting our area thinking it was unoccupied. Humm I thought, I think maybe I might waste a bit of ammunition and rapid fire off a mag of something just to give those in hearing distance something to think about I considered while peering back out to the lakes shore line leading to my cabin. That type of thinking is not right David, why scare the hell out of the neighbors unnecessarily and make a wrong first impression? They are most likely good folks just trying to get by and make do just like me and my group, I mused. I guess eventually we are going to need to establish some kind of tribal territory or resource sharing arrangements with who ever is stranded or has bugged out here in couple mile radius. For now, I’ve got to know something about the capabilities and intentions of who ever might be left as neighbors before I stray too far from my area. I haven’t heard any hunters in my general area so I had high hopes of being able to run a good trap line and maybe put up a couple deer stands, but not before I understood the lay of the land a bit better and did a little risk assessment. I see Jack wandering over to my place from his cottage during a break in the weather and go to open the door for him. “Hey, Jack come on inside. I was just thinking about coming over to get you so we could make a few plans” I said moving into my kitchen area and having a seat at the table. “I wanted to kick a few things with you but really I just wanted to escape Lois, she has cabin fever and has had me already arrange and rearrange everything in that cabin. I left before she found some other meaningless task to do.” Jack said looking frustrated. “Send her over to the girls cabin, they can wear each other out a bit bickering or comparing notes on what other weird tasks they decide need doing” I offered sympathizing with him. Sherry had come by my place yesterday and psycho babbled me to death talking about her opinion on everything from her friends quirks and behaviors to what she thought I ought to reorganize in my place even though I told her several times in no uncertain terms I LIKED things as they were in my own home and to quit badgering me to change them. “She can go over if she wants, but I don’t want to hear a word for word “she said I said” reenactment of the visit when she gets back home. I swear I never understood why some women insist on doing that” he said attempting to prowl the kitchen for any tid bit of food that wasn’t carefully put away or nailed down expecting such a move on his part. “There is some peanut butter crackers in that drawer on your left Jack, but you owe me for them” I offered my ravenous chow hound buddy. “Ok I will replace them with something, next foraging trip.” Said Jack realizing such items were now very precious indeed and having free access to graze my goods or show up exactly at dinner time was something that could become no longer welcome. “ I am a little bit surprised you haven’t forayed out by yourself or attempted to drag me along house hunting when ever the rains let up for an hour or two” Jack said consuming the little orange crackers in about six bites. “I considered it; I did do a little recon with the binoculars and walked up the shore a bit on my side. I went over and told Mom what I was doing but I wasn’t in the mood to get anybody fired up to come along with me” I said eying the SKS that Jack had leaned against the wall and noticing some small rust spots. “Damn Jack you have had all the time in the world to oil that gun! I told you how important it was to check the weapons daily especially in this damp kind of environment.” I said disgustedly and went to get some gun oil to do it myself. “That’s one thing I wanted to ask you about, I don’t have any gun oil, is it alright to wipe them down with 3 in 1 oil? He said reaching for the rag and oil and wanting to wipe it off himself so I wouldn’t have anything extra to fuss about. “Yes it works fine, that BreakFree lubricant I got will protect it a lot better though. But we got to use it sparingly, I forgot to get some more before the SHTF and don’t have a lot left, I think I will save it for internal parts and maybe the insides of the barrels.” I said sighing about how hard it was going to be to replace things these days. I didn’t know you had 3 in 1 oil and had taken the dip stick out of the tractor the other day to dribble a little oil on my front door hinges so they didn’t screech like a banshee every time I opened it the other day.” “You see any signs of life when you did your recon?” Jack said while rubbing away a particularly tough rust spot. “I think we have three vacant houses and one occupied on the other side of this slough. I had to walk a bit to even see them through the binoculars good, but one appeared to have what looked like a trickle of smoke coming from the back of it. Without studying them for a long period of time there is no telling though. I guess we either go visit them when this rain quits or ignore them or go off exploring elsewhere for now” I told Jack went to get another pair of binoculars I had found that I wanted to see if they were more powerful than what I had. “We don’t even know what exactly is on the way over there do we? You ever drive by that way before when you used to come up here?” Jack said finishing his task and leaning the rifle back against the wall. “It has been so long ago, I can’t quite remember. I know there is another one of these little gravel roads coming off a dirt road to access it and it opens to a bigger side of the lake on the opposite side of that point, but other than that I don’t know.” I said proceeding to try to estimate the power of the binoculars Bernie had left but were not marked for magnification. Dang these things are double what mine are. Cool, the other side of the lake is even more visible now. And who are you folks? I wonder looking at a middle-aged man and woman sitting under their deck and scanning around. It appears you got two kids as I pan the binoculars to the dock and boathouse noticing the two fishing separately. I drop the binoculars from my eyes and try to figure out the distance walking the shoreline versus sailing across the lake. I am guessing about 5 miles but its hard as hell to estimate from this vantage point because I don’t know how far that little slough goes back on my left from the farthest house from Donnie’s that I could see. I will ask him next time we get together or one of us calls a meeting. Donnie and his wife were ok, and useful to have around in some ways, but Donnie was from the era that money was king and just did not understand he could not get what he wanted by offering payment in the terms of old values. He is still pissed at me that I wouldn’t take cash, jewelry or anything else for a long arm. He offered me gold and diamonds for that SKS Jack totes around because it’s scoped and has advantages over the AK for hunting and target viewing even if it only has a 4x scope. I am not telling Jack I got a scope for that AK also until I think its ok to sight it in and do some live fire to testing of it. I bought that old POSP scope awhile back just as a cheaper cool looking add on I might want someday and that I was going to get around to trying it at the range but never had the chance to sight it in. It was probably factory sighted in ok, but who knows off hand at what range the crazy Russian Army decided was proper. I would guess a 100 meters but I wanted to study the manual on it before trying to explain to someone certain things about it might be totally different than what I was used to. The POSP series is world famous for its quality and is current military issue for the Red Army. It is built battlefield-tough from magnesium alloy and has fully multi-coated optics. I paid about two hundred bucks for it and an illuminated 4x24 Rifle Scope w/ 400 Meter Rangefinder for the price couldn’t be beat. The illuminated reticule scopes allow you to determine kill distance as well as to track and observe game in the field. The iron sights Jack was using were good enough to aim with, but hell we were both doing the aging failing eyesight thing now and at dusk that lighted sight would make all the difference in the world to a hit or a miss when it counted. “Jack I got something to show you but you can not use it until we are confident about its capability to put steel on target” I got up and went to where I had the sight stashed at and knowing he thought I had a bazooka or something I had not told him about, and not wanting to disappoint him, hollered back it was only a gun scope for the AK. He was momentarily deflated but when I handed him the camo nylon cased scope his excitement rose to the occasion with all the appropriate “ooos and Ahhs “ I had come to expect from him when I present some significant deadly acquisition I had managed to save up for and procure from less than common resources. “How many batteries does this dang thing take and how long do they last” were the first words out of his mouth he asked upon opening the Velcro sealed pouch and seeing 30 Maxwell brand watch looking batteries encapsulated in plastic on a card. “Just two batteries, they last on the high setting about 50 hours. I have forgotten. I researched the hell out of the run time awhile back but I just don’t remember anymore. That really does not matter though unless you are leaving the scope powered up and on for some odd reason, because you got regular black crosshairs for daylight, unless you just feel the need for additional lighting because of shadows in the woods. Just remember to be sure to check that the switch is in the off position and leave that front lens cap on until you want to look at something so you do not inadvertently scratch the lens going through brush. The way it’s mounted you can still use the iron sights so no worry about not being able to aim it normally or in a hurry.” I told him and went to get my AR for comparison. “This thing feels heavy for such a low power scope, will it screw up my aim? “ Jack said eying the scope which appeared to be built like a Russian tank. “No, actually, it will help you to bull’s eye, it’s got a bullet drop compensator built in to it so you don’t have to adjust or remember complex math tables or anything. the scope does it automatically for you. Ha! To be so old but so perfect, sounds like me. Hee Hee” I told him grinning and presenting my same era scope but of American design and ¼ of the size. 2